The Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time, January 30, 2022

Luke 4:21–30

Jesus began speaking in the synagogue, saying: “Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.” And all spoke highly of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They also asked, “Isn’t this the son of Joseph?” He said to them, “Surely you will quote me this proverb, ‘Physician, cure yourself,’ and say, ‘Do here in your native place the things that we heard were done in Capernaum.’” And he said, “Amen, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own native place. Indeed, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah when the sky was closed for three and a half years and a severe famine spread over the entire land. It was to none of these that Elijah was sent, but only to a widow in Zarephath in the land of Sidon. Again, there were many lepers in Israel during the time of Elisha the prophet; yet not one of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.” When the people in the synagogue heard this, they were all filled with fury. They rose up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town had been built, to hurl him down headlong.  But Jesus passed through the midst of them and went away.

The sequence of events Luke relates here is: The Lord goes into the synagogue in Nazareth.  Then he goes to the front and reads from the scroll of Isaiah.  Next, he begins to speak on what he has read.  The people in attendance at first speak highly of him during the course of his teaching.  As he continues, however, some begin to speak against him out of jealousy.  The Lord defends himself and continues to teach.  A number of townsmen then seek to throw him over the side of the hill.  Finally, Jesus walks away.  It is necessary to keep in mind the passage of time that takes place during the course of these events, otherwise it is difficult to reconcile “All were amazed, etc.” with “They also asked, etc.”  Neither Luke nor the other Evangelists tell us the contents of his teaching here.  They only indicate the passage the Lord wanted to speak on.  In trying to understand what is happening in the synagogue, we can look at other examples for when the crowd turned against him.  The most famous of these incidents is that of the time the Lord spoke of himself as the Bread of Life and how we must eat his Flesh and drink his Blood in order to live forever, in John 6.  He had fed these people miraculously but the crowd turned on him as soon as he taught them this doctrine.  The people rejected his claim that he was the Bread of Life.  This leads us to reread today’s Gospel reading, in which the Lord claims to be the one of whom the Prophet Isaiah spoke, saying, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. Wherefore he has anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor, he has sent me to heal the contrite of heart, to preach deliverance to the captives and sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of reward.”  That is, he is claiming to be the Messiah, and as this dawns on them as he continues to teach, they revolt.  Like the five thousand people whom Jesus fed, the people of Nazareth are aware of his miracles.  As Jesus speaks for them, “Do here in your native place the things that we heard were done in Capernaum.”  

We ought not to wonder that there is so little faith in the world when even those who saw his miracles rejected him.  And yet, we also can wonder at what a miracle faith is, so that anyone believes.  We contemplate how it is that we believe and others do not.  We also pray that others may receive the gift of faith so that they may come to know the Lord too.